The House Democratic Budget: The Status Quo – and Then Some

Taxes, Spending, and a Lack of Reform

March 6, 2008

The Democratic budget introduced yesterday contains the usual mix of higher taxes and higher spending – only more so. The Majority’s “new” fiscal blueprint, as reported by the Budget Committee, calls for an even larger tax increase than last year, totaling $683 billion over 5 years. But the budget still manages to soak up the additional revenue with an array of proposals to expand government, setting in motion a vicious cycle of ever-higher spending chased by ever-higher taxes. Further, the Democrats fail to fully budget for Iraq and Afghanistan – after criticizing the President’s budget for the same thing.

The budget also fails to rescue Social Security and Medicare from the financial crisis that is now unfolding, despite repeated warnings that these and other entitlement programs are the largest threat to the budget and the U.S. economy.